to be wrought, the countenance according to her account, becomes of the most lovely pink; when not, it remains unchanged, or turns pale.

I was present on one occasion, when the ceremony was performed in the chapel of the Bambino. A lady, apparently the wife of a wealthy shopkeeper, was the patient; she seemed in perfect health, but within a few days of her confinement. A long litany was chanted, during which the lady knelt before the altar. At the conclusion of it, the priest with great reverence took the Bambino from off the altar, and presented it to the lady, who kissed its toes, and then rubbed her forehead upon them; she then rose from her knees, and the priest, a young man, slowly and solemly rubbed the fore part of her person with the image in the form of a cross, first up and down, and then across. By undergoing this process, she was quite satisfied that she would pass quickly and safely through her approaching trial. As a proof of her benevolence, she brought with her a poor woman in the same situation, on whom the same process was performed, and also about a dozen of poor children with sore eyes or sore feet, to whom also the image was presented. When all had been operated upon, some prayers concluded the function, and the lady we were told paid for all. The Romanists say, that in the respect which they pay to images, they intend none to the image, and all to the object represented.

But

if they believe that there is no inherent virtue in the doll I have been describing, to what purpose is it taken off the altar, and applied to the person of the patient?

At Christmas, this Bambino forms the principal ornament of a very fine Presepio, and is displayed to public view on one or two other days during the year. On the feast of Epiphany, a pro

cession takes place in commemoration of the manifestation of our Saviour to the Gentiles. The image is carried round a part of the top of the Capitoline hill. I was present once. The square formed by the public buildings of the Capitol, and the various accesses from the west, together with the Piazza below, were completely filled with persons of the lower orders, many thousands were present, and the church was SO crowded, that it was with great difficulty I could force my way into it. The grand object of most of them appeared to be to get a near view of the Bambino, and if possible, to kiss its toes. The spot where this ceremony took place, made a strong impression on my mind. I fancied to myself, that if Cæsar could have looked up from his grave, he would instantly have demanded what new province had been subdued, what conqueror was now passing in triumph over the Capitoline hill, attended by all the flamens and priests in their robes? And if St. Paul could have come from his own hired house, and been present, he would, without doubt, have imagined that the multitude were assembled to witness a sacrifice to Jupiter Capitolinus; or to see the spolia opima deposited in the heathen temple. I could perceive no semblance of Christian worship in the service, but it brought clearly and strongly to my mind the scenes acted on the same spot in Pagan Rome. Near the foot of the long stair leading to the Ara Celi is a very small chapel, containing a model of the true Bambino. It is exhibited on the same occasions with the other, and appears to me to be intended for the use of the old and infirm, who are unable to climb the long stair, or encounter the crowd.

There is another image in very high favour in Rome, a statue of the Virgin Mary, in the church

of the Augustines. It is known by the name of the Madonna del Parto, and represents the Virgin Mary as being black, an idea which I understand is founded on the words, "I am black but comely," in the Song of Solomon (i. 5.) This Virgin takes a peculiar charge of women in labour, whence her name, Our Lady of the Birth. I have rarely entered this church at any hour of the day without finding several women on their knees before the image; and sometimes there were crowds of all ages and both sexes. Sometimes also I have seen women just able to crawl after their confinement, using the first of their returning strength to come to give thanks to the statue for its protection and assistance vouchsafed to them.

I repeatedly noticed persons after praying sometime before the statue, rise and approaching it, dip a small quantity of cotton wool into the oil of a lamp which burned beside it; this they wrap up carefully, and carry away to be applied to their friends who are in labour, in order to help forward their delivery. But although this Madonna is peculiarly in vogue for persons in these circumstances, she is also applied to in many other cases, and I have rarely seen a shrine adorned by so many votive offerings. On her own person are displayed jewels of every sort. Her fingers are literally covered with rings, and round her neck I have counted eighteen necklaces of rubies, pearls, and coral; sundry watches were also hung about her person. The other votive offerings are attached to the adjoining walls of the church, and cover several hundred square feet.

The votive offerings in Italy are of various sorts. Jewels and trinkets are given by the rich, the lower orders give articles of less cost. A very common offering for a favour received is a painting of the event. These paintings, of

which every traveller in Italy must see thousands, are in the very worst style of sign-painting. I can hardly attempt to describe them : houses burning and the Virgin Mary helping the inhabitants out of the flames; Carriages and horses running over children, and St. Anthony or St. Francis stopping the horses or appearing in the clouds to protect the children, and so forth. As I particularly wished to explain this part of the Catholic superstition to you, I have made various attempts to purchase one of these pictures, but without success, as I would only buy one which had actually been presented to a saint. They are the most ridiculous things which can be imagined. Each, in general, has P. G. R. signifying, for the favour received, and the date of the event, in a corner.

There is a small chapel at the Porta Paradisi of the town of Asti in Piedmont, the walls and roof of which are completely clothed with these pictures; the number must amount to several thousands.

This, like almost all the external forms of the Roman Catholic church, is derived from the ceremonies of Heathen Rome,* while another class of votive offerings show yet more clearly how closely modern has followed after ancient Rome.

In the heathen temples it was

* Thus Tibullus says, El. I. L. 3. 'Nunc Dea, nunc succurre mihi nam posse mederi

Picta docet templis multa labella tuis."

See Middleton's Letter from Rome. How much it is to be regretted that a man who saw so clearly the errors of the Popish church, should in the latter part of his life give so much reason to doubt the soundness of his own faith. There is not in the English language a more convincing work than his letter from Rome; to me it has been peculiarly so, from having the good fortune to read it in Rome, surrounded by the ancient Paganremains of ism, and in the habit of daily witnessing the forms which the Romish church has copied from her predecessor.

an

common to present to the demon there adored, a foot, a hand, arm, or a head, of coarse pottery, in token of gratitude for the recovery of that part of the body from some disease or accident. These ancient votive offerings are by no means rare; I have seen hundreds of them in the shop of a dealer in antiquities. Now in modern Italy they present in exactly the same manner hands and legs and arms of silver to the Virgin Mary or a saint, in token of gratitude for the recovery of the part of the body offered.

The

The manufacture of these votive offerings is no inconsiderable branch of the trade of the silversmiths in Rome. They are sold by weight, and are in general very thin. quantity of them which adorn a popular shrine is astonishing, and sometimes they are of great value; for example, there is lying within the superb crystal coffin of St. Charles Boromeo at Milan, a baby of solid gold, presented to him a few years ago by one of the ladies of the Imperial House of Austria, in return for a living child, for whom she considered herself as somehow indebted to the saint.

In the south of Italy, where the peasantry are very poor, silver is too expensive an article to be obtained by them for their offerings, and they have recourse to little figures of wax painted. The largest collection of these I have yet seen, is in the subterraneous church of Saint Antonino, in the town of Sorrento, not far from Naples. They are attached to the walls, or suspended from the roof of his chapel in hundreds, and represent the various parts of the human body which the saint had cured, or the infants over whose birth he had presided. In this subterraneous church are three different articles famed for working miracles. The body of Saint Antonino, (there are sundry saints of this name) a picture of the

Virgin Mary, and a crucifix of great value; our guide assured us that the crucifix wrought the miracles much better than the saint. While I was examining the wax figures, a man came down into the church, and threw himself prostrate.on the floor, calling out loudly, Saint Antonino! Saint Antonino! Grazia! Grazia! he crawled forward from the foot of the stair to the altar, licking the pavement with his tongue the whole way, and leaving a mark behind him, as if a large snail had passed along. Any one who has seen the abominations of the pavement of a church in the south of Italy, will feel that it required a stout stomach even to witness the process. Doubtless the man considered it as a most meritorious work.

Besides those little figures, there is another tolerably numerous class of votive offerings, composed of swords and daggers, guns and pistols, which it is understood, are generally presented by persons who have been in the habit of using them contrary to law, in plain language, by robbers and banditti, who, when they resolve to abandon their wicked course of life, thus consecrate as it were their weapons to their favourite saint, and vow to sin no more.

Fire-arms which have accidentally burst, are in like manner presented as marks of gratitude for escaping uninjured; there is a large museum of weapons of every sort about the shrine of the Madonna del Parto mentioned above. In the same way the lame who have recovered the use of their limbs, present their crutches to the saint, through whose intercession they think they have been relieved. Of all the offerings to the Virgin Mary, the most common is a small silver heart, having V.M. P.G.R. stamped upon it. This is presented for any favour, or as a token of devotedness to her service; and

more of these may be seen round a popular shrine, than of all the others put together.

'Let these few facts suffice as to votive offerings. Catholics, however, have other modes of getting quit of their sins, besides bribing the virgin and saint by their offerings. You have often heard of the Flagellantes, or self-whippers of former times, but you may be surprised to learn that the system is still pursued in Rome, and that there are even in this nineteenth century, persons who imagine they can atone for their sins, by the laceration of their bodies, while the great head of the Catholic church, provides them with ample accommodation for the purpose.

Being resolved to satisfy my curiosity on this singular subject, by being present at the ceremony, I went one evening to the church of the Caravita, where it is performed on the Tuesdays and Thursdays of Lent. The service commenced about an hour after sun-set. The church is spacious, and the number of men present was, as nearly as I could judge, about five hundred. There were only six or eight small candles, so that from the first I could only see indistinctly. During prayers, two or three attendants entered, each having an iron hoop, on which were suspended about a hundred leathern thongs. These were distributed among the congregation, but some had brought their whips along with them. I examined the thongs and found them exactly like

a

good small English dog-whip, bard and well-knotted towards the point, but I did not succeed in purchasing one as I wished to do, for your benefit. After prayers, we had a sermon of some length, on the advantages of punishing the body, for the good of the soul, and especially that sort of penance which is inflicted by means of whips. During the sermon the lights were extinguished one after another, and the concluding part of it was delivered in total dark

ness. It is understood that as soon as the last candle is extinguished, the penitents begin to undress, and when the preacher ceased, the flagellation commenced. It Tasted fully a quarter of an hour; hundreds were certainly flogging something, but whether their own bare backs, or the pavement of the church, I cannot tell. To judge from the sounds, some used the whips, and others their hands, but the darkness was so total, I could see nothing; and besides having some little fear for my own person, I had got into a snug corner where I calculated no thongs could reach me. The groaning and crying were horrid, but the scene was altogether so perfectly ludicrous, that I had much difficulty in repressing an inclination to laugh. When the flagellation ceased, prayers were read, during which. the penitents put on their clothes, if ever they had taken them off, and composed their countenances. Lights were brought in, and the congregation dismissed with the usual benediction.

SIR, I am one of the many who feel something like a dread at the very idea of Popery ever again prevailing in our land; but supposing that there is no real ground

for such a fear, is there not still some danger, lest Protestantism should be wounded in the house of its friends, and Popery be inadvertantly aided by those who are